An exact minimizer for Boolean relations

Boolean relations are a generalization of incompletely specified logic functions. The authors give a procedure, similar to the Quine-McCluskey procedure, for finding the global optimum sum-of-product representation for a Boolean relation. This is formulated as a binate covering problem, i.e. as a generalization of the ordinary (unate) covering problem. They give an algorithm for it and review the relation of binate covering to tautology checking. The procedure has been implemented and results are presented.<<ETX>>